At the risk of inflating local movie prodigy Xavier Dolan’s ego even further, there’s no denying that recent Quebec film history can be divided into two periods — pre-Xavier and post-Xavier. When, at the age of 20, Dolan’s first, largely self-financed feature, J’ai tué ma mère, had its world première at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009, films from la belle province had little profile internationally. Yes, Quebec film was in the midst of a boom at the box-office chez nous, but there was little interest in our films elsewhere on the planet.

Art souterrain covers seven kilometres through the labyrinth that is Montreal’s underground city, but at Complexe Desjardins it surfaces into the sunlight, to where nine artists from the invited city of Barcelona have set up booths around the central fountain to show their videos.

I get stuck on favourite restaurants, particularly Indian ones, returning like a moth to a flaming curry. But I wanted to try the year-old India's Oven, so conveniently located near Park métro, and with the added allure of being a BYOB.